On the Pamir Plateau, where herds graze the slopes and wheat has long sustained villages, asparagus was never part of the story. This changed last spring, when Nurbiye Azizi bent down, snapped off a green shoot, and tasted asparagus for the first time.

"The first time I tried it, it was raw, fresh from the earth. The second time, we stir-fried it with lamb, and it was tender, unfamiliar and surprisingly delicious," said Nurbiye.

She is among many locals who had never heard of asparagus, let alone seen its slender stalks in a village in Akto County, Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

What felt new to her palate was, in fact, the start of a broader change. In April 2024, as part of China's nationwide "pairing assistance" program -- launched in 1997 to bring financial, technical and human resource support from other provinces to Xinjiang -- east China's Jiangxi Province helped establish a pilot base of 120 mu (8 hectares) of asparagus in this region.

Just over a year later, the fields are already yielding around 1,000 kg a day, most of it bound for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The crop, notably, has spread far beyond the original trial area, currently covering about 3,000 mu. During this year's March-to-June harvest season, 220 local villagers worked at the asparagus base, where yields brought in more than 7,000 yuan (about 985 U.S. dollars) per mu, far higher than traditional crops.

For 55-year-old Yusup Amet Yusuin, once a forest ranger earning around 1,000 yuan a month, the asparagus fields have meant a threefold increase in pay. He is now one of more than 50 long-term workers in the fields, enjoying a steady income and a noticeably better life.

"I make around 3,500 yuan now. Life is much better now, and I even redecorated our house," he said, while gesturing toward his newly painted, colorful walls.

The success of asparagus comes down to the weather and geography of this region. Hot days, cool nights and rare rainfall combine to make asparagus thrive.

"Here it can be grown outdoors instead of in greenhouses -- with fewer pests and lower costs," said Xu Hong, an agronomist from Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who guides the project. "We plan to launch asparagus tea, drinks and even asparagus-infused cosmetics down the line."

Asparagus may be a newcomer, but figs are old natives experiencing a revival in the region.

Roughly 100 km south of the asparagus fields lies Artux, a city known as China's "hometown of figs." In Azihan Village of Suntag Township, centuries-old fig trees stand gnarled and heavy with fruit nicknamed "sugar bun" figs, which have sweetened generations of family tables.

"Fig trees in our orchard go back three generations. Many were planted by my grandfather," said Guzelnir Turgun, a local villager.

Yet for years, families like hers could only sell their figs in the narrowest of windows as the sweetness was trapped by distance and decay. Guzelnir recalls the grueling routine -- she had to get up at 3 a.m. to pick the figs and try to sell them as quickly as possible. Without cold storage and with few people aware of the village, the fruit would spoil within a day.

Outside the harvest season, she and her husband used to travel over 5,000 km to east China's Zhejiang Province to run a fabric business, leaving their children behind with grandparents.

Change arrived in 2020. Since then, east China's Jiangsu Province has invested about 101 million yuan in the village through its "pairing assistance" program. The program has not only improved infrastructure and boosted agritourism, but also promoted figs across China by connecting cold-chain logistics and upgrading transport and courier services.

Now, Guzelnir's orchard hosts tourists for fig-picking and farm-style dining, welcoming as many as 800 visitors in a single day.

"Thanks to the pairing assistance support, the village has a new reputation," said Zhang Xuehui, a local official. "Five years ago, per capita income here was under 10,000 yuan. By 2024, it had surpassed 18,000 yuan."

In Guzelnir's orchard, the century-old fig trees -- once producing figs that spoiled within a day -- now better provide for her family, attract visitors, and hint at a future her grandfather could hardly have imagined.